A Talk to Musi

Be at your center
With the fisherman small boats
Without jacket and lifebuoy
Causing anxious feeling inside

I chose the wrong time
To tease around with you
When you are on high tide
And strong current

Sometimes the small boat that I ride
Bobbing
Thrust by the boat that whirr
At times the fresh water of yours splashing to my face

I hang my panicked
At the mosque’s dome
That grows in a row
At the gap of the house by your shore

Then slowly
My conscience sink
At your deepest bottom
At your remote soul.

19 July 2011,
Musi, Palembang
(Translated by Sarah Samsudin)